Samain                                                                       Closing Moon

A day of rest tomorrow. Maybe some art. Then on Friday back to the packing, sorting and phone calls.

Hitting a snag on snow removal. Folks are getting out of it in Conifer. One guy, with 80 driveways, quit this year. That means, in an already saturated market (according to Mike the Fence Guy), 80 homes will need to find someone to plow their driveways. I might, I suppose, have to buy a snowblower (or snowthrower as some are now called). Outdoor recreation.

Found one guy who delivers seasoned hardwood for $300+ a cord. Might be worth it in Colorado where the normal cord has all conifers. $22o. It’s a small fireplace and a cord might well go two seasons. I’m going to call him tomorrow along with boiler and gas heater service guy.

The front office guy at Colorado Toyota Services moved to Conifer from northern Iowa. He said the first week he was there it snowed 44″. “But I walked right through it to the garage. It was powder.”

Hard to wind back into Minnesota after 5 days concentrating on the house.

Samain                                                                        Closing Moon

Back home in Minnesota. There was enough time in the new house to get used to certain things like light switch locations, getting in and out of the garage (not connected to the house), fiddling with room-by-room heating and the wonderful canopy of stars at night. There was also enough time to begin to get a feel for the retail clusters nearby and what they have to offer.

Then, there were the mountains. Only enough time to drive around a bit, get used to curvy, all up or all down roads, some pitched at spectacular angles, look at the views. Not enough time to wander, walk in them, visit for hours. That time will come.

Driving into Denver, and what that will be like, I experienced three times, enough to get a feel for the distance, the various routes. My existing mental map of Denver has some solid foundations, but most of the metro is still unfamiliar to me.

With about six weeks before we move there are still many things to complete: our part of the packing, finalizing the painting contractor, stopping newspaper delivery and trash pickup, finding a person to connect our generator to the house, getting leads on firewood providers. And more, too.

We’ve worked along at a deliberate pace and finishing all this in six weeks is well within our ability. Not finished, not yet, but the end of getting ready is visible just up ahead.